Are you talking about boiled eggs or un-boiled ones?
Un-Boiled:By tapping it very lightly on the edge of whatever you are going to put it in (that way you won't get egg all over the place). Just keep tapping it, until you see a crack and opposite ends away gently, as well. It works for me, I never have egg shells in my cooking, so I'd say it's a good way.
Boiled: Take the bottom of the egg and tap it against a hard surface, there should have been something like an air bubble while it was boiling so the air stayed at the top while the egg cooked. Then you have a nice little indent already made for you to start.
Some people use spoons and tap very very lightly around the perimeter of the egg and the shell comes off without a hassel. I am not very good at it though, so I'm not sure how hard it'd be.

1. Put egg in a triple-hardened Fort Knox-grade safe.
2. Close safe.
3. Drill hole in top of safe with magnetic drill.
4. Fill safe with water through hole.
5. Slip 4kg of plastic explosives in through hole
6. Detonate explosive.
Notes: (1) be sure to wear protective eyewear whenever working with explosives. (2) Egg may overcrack, so locate all pieces and boil.

You'll get cleaner cracks with bigger eggs, as opposed to the small/medium eggs. A hen's eggs start out with the same amount of eggshell-forming material. The larger the egg grows, the bigger the area the shell will cover, and the more "stretched" the shell will be. Stretched = thinner = easier to crack.
~~~~~~~
ptrask, you crack me up! That's cute. Hi to you, too.
Darkling, my pleassure. Happy to help.

WEIGHT SLIGHTLY ON RIGHT FOOT LEAN FOWARD A LITTLE....CARFUL DON'T OVER BALANCE...NOW RAISE LEFT ARM BEHIND BODY FOR COUNTER BALANCE AND STYLE...WITH RIGHT HAND USE THUMB AND TWO FINGERS CRACK QUICK AND FIRM IN A POSITIVE MANOR ALLOWING FOR RECOIL. PLACE SHELLS IN BIN USING DOUBLE CUP FORMATION. SHOEMAKER OUT!!

If you are cooking for a LARGE group, don't worry about it. Just get a large container and crush the eggs in your hands and allow the inside to fall into the contain. then just throw away the shell. Don't worry about any fragments of shells that may fall into the container. They will just sink to the bottom. You will then just ladle the eggs out as needed.
This is the way we did it when I was working in the kitchen in a summer camp. It is rather messy, but it is also a great way to work out your frustrations. Especially if you do it two fisted.

On the side of the table - drives my partner crazy; he says I'm more likely to break the yolk that way. He gets out individual drinking glasses, one for each egg, and carefully breaks each one with a knife, dropping its contents into its own little drinking glass nest. And guess who gets to do the washing up ;)

I have tried everything imagineble. The only thing that works for me is to give the egg a whack on a flat surface. The egg stays together when you need it to, but gives no resistance when you go to open it. No nasty shell pieces anywhere! It sounds completely counter-intuitive, but it's what pastry chefs do.

# Hold the egg in the palm of your hand (palm facing down), gripping firmly, but not squeezing, with the first and second fingers on one side and the thumb on the other side. This is the basic curveball grip, baseball fans.
# Tap the egg sharply against something hard*. Keep your wrist straight; wrist-flexing will absorb the energy of your tapping, and tend to prevent the egg from cracking. On your next--more vigorous--attempt, the egg will explode all over your hand and drive shards of egg shell into your flesh.
# Here's the tricky part: Without relaxing your grip, hold the egg over your intended receptacle and, while squeezing gently with your thumb, slide your first and second fingers in opposite directions along the surface of the egg, toward its ends, keeping the pressure of your fingers even. This seperates the two halves of the egg shell cleanly** and releases the egg content--usually in one piece. If it is important to you that the yolk should be unbroken, use a cold egg; otherwise, room temperature is best.

1. Put the egg in your hip pocket and sit down on the suede sofa.
.
2. Turn on the fan to high speed and throw the egg into the fan blades.
.
3. Put on your jackboots and jump on the egg.
.
4. Drop it off a 60-storey building.
.
5. Give it a head-butt against a brick wall.

RELATED TOPICS

ABOUT ANSWERBAG

Answerbag wants to provide a service to people looking for answers and a good conversation. Ask away and we will do our best to answer or find someone who can.We try to vet our answers to get you the most acurate answers.